Day 23

I was so nervous as I was walking in to work! I had really positive feedback from a lot of people. Quite a few people said I looked really good, and two of my managers told me I was even prettier than before! My coworker who sent me the care package told me I look like a model now! Everyone keeps saying 'You were pretty before, but now you are SO pretty!' and I have gotten a lot of 'WOW's haha. It makes me thankful I don't look like I did before, now that I know what everyone thought of me! Hehe :) I really am smiling more with every compliment I hear. Two coworkers told me they didn't even recognize me when I walked in, whatever! I did a lot of answering questions and talking about my recovery with everyone today. I had some people who knew exactly what was happening, and others who just knew I was out of work for a while, so there really was a wide range of reactions. It's funny to hear how blown away some people are. I have been making comments about my face and lip still being swollen to everyone, so people don't think my face is stuck all stiff and weird forever. It was great to get nothing but positive feedback from everyone. I am not in a place where I don't like my face, thank god, but I am also not in a place where I absolutely love how everything turned out. I am positive I will get there though, it will just take a bit of time to get used to looking in the mirror! I am absolutely loving my profile though!

Less than 3 weeks until I can get this silly splint out of my mouth! It's not terrible, but it does make my speech more sloppy and eating a bit more difficult. Dr M called me yesterday to check on how I was doing. How great is that? The man juggles between 4 different locations he works at, along with however many patients he has, and he takes time out to see how I am doing. He asked me if I would like to switch my appointment with him to Thursday instead of Friday, because on Thursdays Dr S (who is located directly across the hall from Dr M) is in all day and that way he can come over to the surgery center during my appointment to check in how I am doing as well. That way, I can see both Drs in one appointment. I think I will ask Dr M about the splint at my appointment... maybe I can get it off closer to 2 weeks from now :)

I tried to use my waterpik yesterday. I had never used it before, between moving home and my time of surgery, it never made it out of the box. Anyway, I think I better go over the instructions a few times-- I used about 3/4 of the water tank thing in a total of about 10 seconds. I clearly am doing something wrong :-P

Current annoyance: the upper gums. They are so numb when I touch them with a toothbrush, but they are always uncomfortable, if that's even possible. It alternates between feeling like there is NO saliva reaching up there so my gums feel completely dry, or it feels like all of my saliva pools up there and so it feels slimy and gross. The way the splint is held in place is there are little wires that go in between my teeth and are 'tied' at the top of a few teeth, so I have little metal twisty tie looking things near my gumline above my tooth (really creepy looking, btw). I am wondering if I am beginning to feel these or what is causing so much discomfort. Maybe there are still sores up there?

Every day, things seem to get better and better. I am not going to lie and say I am done complaining, it's in my DNA, I am a complainer haha, but I am also really good at looking at the bright side of things. I have been blessed in so many ways throughout surgery and my recovery. MY LIP IS COMING DOWN and that is a miracle in itself :)

I found this site yesterday that has a bunch of before/after pictures people have posted... I thought it was pretty fun to flip through so I thought I would share! http://www.jawsurgeryblog.com/forums/forum/before-after-photos